Call Me Ghost ✔️

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"I can't believe you've never modeled before. You totally have the legs for it."

I blush at Mila's comment as we hike up a path through the heavy forest that took us nearly an hour long drive to get to. Mila's expensive looking camera is hanging around her neck, and her bag with all her extra lenses and supplies is clutched tightly in her hand.

"Thanks." I reply, brushing a few stray curls out of my eyes. They keep getting caught on the ridiculously long lashes that Tay pain-stakingly applied to my face this morning, along with an array of other fancy makeup techniques that I could never attempt to copy. "I always figured I was too short."

That, and I never really felt the desire to be a model. Too many eyes picking you apart. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that the one time Brody's sister suggested I could be good at it, he'd outright laughed in both our faces.

"Too short for runway, maybe. But catalogue. You've got the just look I'm going for." Mila tells me with a proud smile, "Thanks again for agreeing."

"Well I don't want to be the reason you flunk your Photography class."

Tay snorts beside me and remarks, "Like she could ever flunk at that. I think she just used that as an excuse to guilt you into doing this."

Mila shoots Tay a sharp look, and I just laugh between the two of them. I've noticed, from the few times I've hung out with them, that they treat each other a lot like sisters. They bicker and tease one another, but at the end of the day, either one would go to bat for the other.

"Well, I'm happy to do it anyway." I assure Mila.

"That's because you're the nicest human being on earth." Mila sings merrily, pinching my cheek as she scrunches her nose at me like one would do to a chubby baby that just giggled for the first time.

I swat her hand away and she just smirks and prances away to find the best spot to set up our photo shoot. Tay and I stay behind, just watching her fret around a few different clearings, assessing the light or shadows or whatever.

"I'm glad you agreed to this." Tay comments, her arms crossing over her chest as she continues to stare forward, "I'm getting so sick of being her guinea pig for every shoot. She always makes me take out my piercings and, in her words, ease up on the goth/rocker chick look."

I laugh at her high-pitched attempt to sound like Mila, "I'm actually kind of excited. I've never done something like this before."

"Well it gets old. Fast." Tay retorts boredly, "Just wait until she starts bossing you around, we'll see how long that excitement holds up."

Tay probably thinks I just mean I've never done a photo shoot before, and it's true, I haven't. But I've also never had a group of close friends to even do stuff like this with. I've never had girl friends who spend all day fixing my hair and make up, and taking long drives just to find a pretty spot to take pictures.

Once again, I feel unwavering gratitude towards Ghost for giving me the chance, and the ability, to meet these girls, and hang out with them, and call them my friends.

I can't help but think back to just a few months ago, before I ever met him. How did I live so long in such a lonely, depressed world? All I had was Brody. Now I have Ghost, and these girls, and Annie and her friends, and even Dane.

So far Troy hasn't fallen into the friend category. Not with the cold looks he's constantly shooting my way.

"Okay, right here is perfect!" Mila proclaims, jumping up and down next to an alcove of trees and grass that looks pretty much exactly like every other spot. But I guess she's got the artistic eye for these things.